He struggled, he scratched out, he never left his room, he went crazy and he’d say ‘well I’m writing only the tip of the iceberg of what I really feel’…his room was a mess, his food was uneaten for three days - it was stale, the chamber pot was unemptied under his piano, he moved all the time, he couldn’t find a place that was right… you see the crossings out, you see the agonies that this man went through… and he wrecked himself his whole life trying to do this inevitability.
This dramatic excerpt are the words of Leonard Bernstein describing none other than Beethoven. A powerful imagery, not least because we all know Beethoven, we all know his sound. We consider him one of the giants of history, of music. But we only really pay attention to the end product, music seemingly descended from the heavens. And yet, Beethoven himself is a symbol of a mere human struggling with superhuman ingenuity, emotional instability and failure, like everybody else.
The outcome, as Bernstein puts it: …the finished product looks as though it was simply phoned in from God.
The greater point being made is that Beethoven wasn’t particularly excellent at any individual thing. He wasn’t a great melodist or orchestrator. He admitted himself he failed at writing a decent fugue no matter how hard he tried – something Bach could literally do in reverse. But once you put it all together, it’s as though he chose all the right notes in the end, as if no other notes could have been chosen. His music was inevitable in a way not even Mozart could achieve.
I wonder if this can be extrapolated to apply to many other things in our lives. For example, you may be an average writer, businessperson and cook. But when you put these ideas together to publish a series of cookbooks, something just melds together and becomes inevitable. Nobody else could have made it in the way you did, which somehow connects with the audiences, and is heard by them, in a way no other author could have accomplished.
Perhaps this is a significant blind spot in people’s idea of their paths to success:
Oh, I’m a musician but I’m just not as good as everybody else so I’ll never succeed. I’m not an influencer, I’m not charismatic, I’m not smart with money. I’ll never succeed.
Perhaps throwing oneself into a situation where your boring face is on camera showcasing your personality, your story and your failures in a futile attempt to become a famous rock star is what captivates people and draws them into your brand, if it even is a brand at that point.
There is a random American man on YouTube I have streaming live as we speak – CoffeeWithKen – A completely unremarkable man in every individual aspect. He’s a man of failure, having two divorces under his belt, three of his family members died tragically early in one year, he lives alone with an inflatable mattress doing a basic salary job. He’s been doing this stream for 6 years and has amassed less than 8,000 subscribers in that time. He literally just sits there every morning with a coffee and talks for 1-2 hours.
About nothing in particular. And yet, here I am, going back for more every day like so many others.
Why is that? His deep, rich voice? His perspective on life after getting through the other side of so many tragedies? It makes people in bad spots feel better? It seems everybody has a different reason. One commenter quit drinking as a result of talking to him on stream. Another girl fancied him and became a stalker. For a man who just sits and talks about nothing. The combination of his banality creates something captivating he may one day make a living out of.
Interesting - I wonder what hidden talents we have here on Hive?
Don’t expect to be Beethoven, though.